Trump Talks Middle-Class Tax Cuts

MOST POPULAR

In a lengthy and wide-ranging interview with The Wall Street Journal published Wednesday morning, President Trump was asked about his new proposal for a 10 percent middle class tax cut. Here’s what the president had to say on that topic:

When asked where the proposal came from: “This is a resolution. Well, this—I’ve been working on this with Kevin Brady for a long time. And because we’re doing so well—we couldn’t have done this originally. I would have put it into the original bill. But we couldn’t have done it originally because we—you know, we’ve become—I mean, we’re doing really well. The numbers are really good.”

When asked how the administration will define “middle class”: “Well, we’ll define it. We’ll have to—we’ll have to define that. I mean, there is a definition, but we’ll make sure the definition is right.”

When asked if he had any thoughts on what that definition should be: “No, I just—we’re going to a 10%. No, that’ll be—that’ll be—will be a great thing for the middle class. I think the middle class deserves it. The middle class has been forgotten for many, many years. I call it the forgotten men and women. They came out, and they like Trump. But the fact is the middle class has been forgotten for many years. And what we’re going to do—this would be a resolution, because they’re out, but we’re doing the resolution now.”

When asked how the new tax cuts will be revenue neutral, as he recently indicated: “We have a way. We’re going to—we’re going to announce it at that time, but we think we can make it revenue neutral based on certain … In fact, if you call [Council of Economic Advisers Chair] Kevin Hassett, let him tell you, because I was going over it. Kevin will give it to you. You know Kevin very well.”

As editor in chief, Yuval Rosenberg oversees all aspects of The Fiscal Times' website and email newsletter. His writing has appeared in publications including BusinessWeek, CNBC.com, CNNMoney.com, Fast Company, Fortune, Newsweek, Money and Time.